Gift Basket Making ideas - Using a Bag as a Gift Basket Container

A basket makes a great traditional gift basket container. However one of the best gift basket making ideas in my opinion is to have one of the gift items double serve as the container as well! What do I mean? Scroll down and see...

Using a gift item as the container opens a whole new spectrum of gift basket making ideas. Not to mention it can be much more functional and unique than the typical wicker basket!

I used a bag as the container for this beach gift basket
for my daughter, who started going to the local swimming pool
on her own this year (these kids grow up so quickly...). Scroll down to see how what she thought of it.

I documented the process to share with you:

1. How to put a gift basket together when your container is a bag.

2. How to make your own beach gift basket on a budget.

My beach gift basket ingredients

Here is a list of the gift items I used. I included USD prices for each
item so you can get an idea of how much such a gift basket costs.

I purchased these items at dollar stores and other cheap accessories stores.

Tote bag ($10).

Large and small Toiletry bags ($2) (the small one is filled with pocket money).

Total: $ 45 (you can play around with the items to
fit your budget. For example, omitting the towel from the gift items
can make this gift basket cheaper by 25%).

For a full inspirational list of possible items to include in a beach gift basket visit this page.

How to Build a gift basket with a bag as a container

Step 1:place all gift items in front of you so you have everything ready before you begin. It is also wise to have scissors, ribbons and sticky tape close by.

Step 2: If your bag is too large or too deep for the amount of gift items you have, insert a filler half way through. I chose to use newspaper as my basic basket filler in this gift basket example.

Step 3: If your filler is not aesthetic enough (like the newspaper here) cover it up with a layer of decorative paper such as gift wrapping paper, decorative tissue paper etc.. In this example, I used a piece of pink disposable table cloth to cover the newspaper base layer.

Step 4: Start by placing taller and larger gift items in the bag first. Place them at the back of the bag. They will provide background and support the smaller items that come next.

Step 5: Continue by adding smaller gift items in front of the larger ones. Keep them in place by sticking them to other items using sticky tape (see how the pen is attached to the crossword puzzle?).
It's better to attach sticky tape behind the item, or at the lower part of the basket when possible so that it is kept out of sight.

Step 6: Once all your gift items are placed inside the bag you can decorate it with ribbons and bows. If you wish, you may also wrap it with cellophane paper. In my case i chose to keep the bag "natural" since I knew I was going to be the one to pick up the gift wraps...

And here is what my daughter looked like when she discovered she now has her own fully equipped beach bag in matching colors to her new swimsuit!

Happy Gifting!!

What now?

If you are curious to see what other items you can include in your own homemade beach gift basket - click here.

If you are looking for other gift basket ideas, check out these gift basket ideas by hobby, by personality, by sport, or simply navigate through this site from the navigation bar to your top left.